WCW/nWo Fall Brawl, Sunday, 9/12/99

Ugly times these days for the WCW, ladies and gentleman. I am beginning to think that they are actually trying to see how far down in the ratings the WCW can slip. Could the Sid and Randy Savage angles be any more painful to watch? One note to Eric Bischoff's replacement: the fans are not booing because Savage and Sid are heels, they are booing because the angles suck. No one wants to hear them on the damn mic! I turn the channel every time either one of them comes on the television. Even worse, when Sid runs in on a match (every other match), I can't watch Nitro for at least thirty minutes or so, because I am so disgusted! And I won't even start about the "Millennium Man," undefeated stuff!

I don't know what the answer is right now. I still love WCW, but I had what these guys are doing to it. It's kind of like FOX owning the Los Angeles Dodgers. These guys are turning WCW into the Los Angeles Dodgers of wrestling. By the way, it was a HUGE mistake to let Raven/Scott Levy go. Having said all of that, there still are some good things about WCW these days, but they seem to be getting fewer and farther between. Cut Sid (not literally, Arn). Retire Savage and Hogan, permanently. Give the young guys more than token airtime. Stop booking Silver King matches on prime time Nitro. Tell Schiavone to stop taking himself so seriously. I personally think we could be helped by a big save by the Hitman on this one. I truly think Bret Hart is the key to bringing WCW out of these doldrums.

One more and I'll get off my soapbox. There is an unbelievably huge difference I've noticed between the WWF and WCW in the past few months. To put is simple: the WWF is funny, WCW is not. Maybe this is oversimplifying it, but I laugh my ass off when I watch RAW and the Rock or Mankind or anyone comes on and starts popping off at everyone. What's your name. IT DOESN'T MATTER!! You watch Nitro and, God forbid, Thunder, and you see Tony and everyone else trying to take themselves SOOO seriously! It's really painful to watch that, especially when every other match is Damien vs. Ciclope or something. Even in the nWo days, you had Nash and Hall on for some comic relief. You always had Dusty Rhodes when he was wrestling. Now what do we have - ummmm, errrrr, nothing, and I think this is turning fans off more than anything to WCW. If you know wrestling is staged, which most sensible fans do these days, what do you tune in for? Sure, good scientific matches, just maybe, but you really tune in for a good SHOW, and WCW just has not been putting on a good, entertaining show lately. I am, and always will be, a fan of WCW. However, I find myself watching the WWF more and more now because it is simply more entertaining. That's a shame, because it doesn't really seem like that difficult of a concept to grasp. Every single DDT Digest writer has grasped it, it seems like, and the fans certainly have, but for whatever reason Eric Bischoff has not yet grasped that concept.

OK, enough pre-show comments. Now, with a cold Coors Light in hand, on to the show............

We start with a montage of something...I just got the PPV at the last minute here!

We are live from the Lawrence Joel Coliseum in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. WOOOOO!

Schiavone talks about the Luger heel turn - uh, I mean the questions surrounding the world title match tonight. They also talk about Benoit vs. Sid. Man, if the bookers screw this one up, I will be pissed.

Ugh, Tony calls the ICP very good wrestlers. What match is he watching??

Sign in the audience: Rey, Show Me Your Misterio. Nice.

We start off with one of the ICP and Kidman. I can't tell them apart. I think it's Shaggy.

Nice one! Kidman had Shaggy in the wheelbarrow position and Rey came off with a guillotine leg drop! Guerrero now comes in with a flying somersault.

Violent J now in with Rey Misterio Jr.

Vampiro tags in and helps double team Rey Jr. Rey Jr. comes back though, and puts the vaunted BroncoBuster on Vampiro.

Now Kidman is in. DDT by Shaggy. Now Vampiro is back in.

I hate to say it, but the ICP does not look too bad so far.

Vampiro goes up top and comes down on Kidman with a spinning kick, but Rey pulls Vampiro off before he can get the pin.

Ahhh, the old "distract the referee so my teammates can beat the crap out of Kidman" by Vampiro. The oldest trick in the book.

Shaggy with a nice powerslam on Kidman, but Eddie breaks up the pin with a thumb in the eye.

Kidman gets to Rey Jr. Rey comes in with a middle rope moonsault. He goes to the ropes, and gets kicked in the back by Vampiro. Now we are outside, and Vampiro runs Rey into the railing.

Misterio is getting worked over by all three opponents now. He finally gets over to Eddie for the tag, and Eddie puts a few Flair Chops on Vampiro for good measure. Eddie is going at Vampiro like a house a-fire. Brain says, "you can hear that one in El Paso!"

Now Shaggy comes in with a guillotine leg drop on Eddie. He then tags Vampiro in.

Eddie cleans house. The ICP looks like, well, a couple of clowns as they go down.

Vampiro holds Eddie up for some sort of a Stunner-like move by Shaggy. Kidman pulls Vampiro off the top rope as he goes up. Kidman is grabbed by Vampiro and SLAMMED to the mat. Here comes Eddie with a missile dropkick on Vampiro!!! Now Kidman is back up with a shooting star press!! 1-2-3!!! The Trio wins.

Rey Misterio looks like he hurt his knee legitimately. The trainers are carrying him out.

WHEW! Great first match! That one surprised me.

The Revolution is at the Internet location. Saturn is asking if you really can download those pictures of the Nitro Girls. Nice. Saturn guarantees a clean sweep and all four members walk away and leave Chad Damiani looking stupid.

Malenko and Knobs are now the legal men. Malenko throws Knobs out and Douglas begins to work on Knobs.

Now it's Knobs and Douglas, and Douglas gets in trouble after going over to Jimmy Hart and mouthing.

Scoop slam by Knobs. Here goes Knobs up to the middle rope. He goes for the flying splash, but lands on Douglas' foot.

Both men tag out, and Malenko is cleaning house. Knobs is in, now he's kicked out. Jimmy Hart comes on the apron and gets a fist in the face. Knobs trips Malenko as he is coming off the ropes. Morrus catches Malenko in the face with an elbow and goes up top for the moonsault on Malenko. 1-2-3!!!! It's over. My gosh, the First Family won!!!!

We are back, and Michael Buffer is in the ring. I think he stole an outfit from Wayne Newton. The shirt has a leopard skin collar with a blue tie and black suit.

Sting comes out first. Tony keeps babbling about how you can trust Hogan.

Hogan comes out in the red and yellow. One thing you gotta say of the guy, he still can get a big pop out of a crowd.

Hogan shakes Sting's hand as they come into the ring.

Here comes Bret Hart!!!! He is, according to Buffer, wishing luck to both competitors. Man, I like Bret Hart. It looks like they are setting him up for a monster face run. He shakes both men's hands, says something to both of them and walks out. That was odd.

Nick Patrick is your referee.

Both men are running mouth at each other early on, as Hogan claims Sting did not have a clean break.

Slow match. Hogan is in control with a scoop slam and two elbow drops. Hogan goes for the pin, but only a one count.

Now Sting comes back with an elbow drop.

Suplex by Hogan, and Sting pops right back up. Sting goes on the offensive on Hogan now.

Clothesline by Sting, and a two count. Hogan rolls outside. Sting follows, and both men are fighting toe to toe. Hogan runs Sting into the railing. Body slam by Hogan on the outside. Now Sting rams Hogan into the railing, and then drops Hogan onto the railing. Hogan uses the camera cord to choke Sting, and both men work themselves back into the ring.

Backdrop suplex by Hogan. Two count only. Hogan is now stretching Sting's arms.

Abdominal stretch applied by Hogan. I think the bar has been raised too much. In the old days, I would have thought that (for Hogan anyway) this was a good scientific match. I'm kind of bored right now to be honest.

Now Hogan is on top as Sting is in the ropes, and Hogan is biting the forehead of Sting. Hogan keeps saying, "It's for the title!"

Sting was a cross body block off the ropes. Two count. Sting now nails a Stinger Splash. Now another! He tries a third time, but Hogan moves. Hogan is "hulking up." Big foot. Hogan goes for the leg drop, but DDP comes in and nails the referee!!! Hogan is on top, but DDP pulls him off and hits a diamond cutter and puts Sting on top of Hogan. Hulk kicks out!!

Bret Hart comes in and nails DDP. They are fighting on the outside. Here comes Sid, and Hogan knocks him out of the ring. Here comes Luger with a ball bat!! Hogan knocks Luger down. Now Sting has the ball bat, and Sting hits Hogan with the bat!!! Sting puts Hogan in the Scorpion Deathlock and it's over!!! Hart comes in and Luger nails Hart with the bat. Sting and Luger embrace and Sting is the nine time World Heavyweight Champion!! Sting and Luger have double-crossed Hogan!!

Sting and Luger celebrate, as we fade to black with a Halloween Havoc promo.

Decent PPV. The great matches came early though. Interesting curve thrown in the last match. Looks like their setting up another Hulk goes nWo-type angle with Sting and Luger pulling the swerve at the end. Again, the Sid-Benoit match was just plain ugly. It's that simple. The ICP came out looking decent though.